Thai mall installs foot pedals in elevators

A mall in Thailand has made some interesting changes to the way its elevators work. The Seacon Square mall in Bangkok installed foot pedals in its elevator so mall goers won’t have to touch potentially infected elevator buttons with their hands.

The decision to replace conventional buttons with foot pedals was made with the intention of stopping the spread of COVID-19, along with trying to restore normality among shoppers and to get them spending again.

“They did a good job in preparing this. I feel much safer because we use our hands to do various things all the time,” a customer told Reuters.

Initially, customers were left confused by the installation of foot pedals both inside and outside of elevators, but they soon welcomed the new hands-free method, as it’s easy to use and far more hygienic then conventional elevator buttons.

According to Prote Sosothikul, vice president of Seacon Development, “The easiest way to get infected is when you touch an object that has been contaminated.”

“Eventually touching your face and the virus will go into your mouth, your eyes, or whatever. So we came up with this idea of hand-free, foot-operated elevator.”

Along with the foot pedals, The Seacon Square mall is also enforcing other measures to protect its customers. These include spraying disinfectant on the “touch points” in the mall, providing hand sanitizers and screening customers before they enter.